title: Asthma management failure: a flaw in physicians' behavior or in patients' knowledge?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Patient-physician communication and patients' knowledge about asthma are relevant factors that influence health outcomes. The aim of this study was to explore general practitioners' (GPs) behaviors, asthma patients' knowledge requirements, and the relationship between physicians' communicative issues, and failures in patients' knowledge.
  
  
  METHODS
  GPs participating in a continuing medical education program on asthma completed an ad hoc survey on communicative style and recruited at least three adult asthma patients to indicate, among 10 options, three aspects of asthma about which they felt less informed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The survey was completed by 2332 GPs (mean age 54.39 ± 5.93 years) and 7884 patients (mean age 49.59 ± 18.03 years). Several ineffective strategies emerged in the physicians' behaviors: 28.5% of GPs did not encourage patients to express doubts, expectations, or concerns; 39.4% tried to frighten patients concerning disease-related risks; only 25.7% used a written action plan. In addition, 18.6% of GPs were not averse to informing the patient about potential side effects; 16.3% did not try to simplify asthma treatment; approximately 30% considered ease of use when selecting drugs; 18% were not disposed to carry out a partnership with the patient; 36.9% were unlikely to involve the patient in asthma management; and 73% tried to retain control over their patients. Finally, 90.3% of GPs declared they want to be consulted before any treatment change. The three topics on which patients felt less informed were the meaning of asthma control (14% of patients); integration of asthma into daily life (13.3%); and periodic checkups (12.7%). There were significant associations between patients' choices and physicians' answers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results demonstrate that in general medicine the recommendations of international guidelines on education, communication, and development of a doctor-patient partnership are still ignored and that patients' educational priorities may differ from those identified by medical specialists and by patients belonging to patients' associations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Allergy and Respiratory Disease Clinic, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy. fulvio.braido@unige.it
authors.forename: Fulvio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Braido
authors.forename: Ilaria
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Baiardini
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Menoni
authors.forename: Vito
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Brusasco
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Centanni
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Girbino
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dal Negro
authors.forename: Giorgio Walter
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Canonica
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001249:Asthma / Q000628:therapy*; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D058005:General Practitioners / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017211:Treatment Failure